A University of Houston Earth and Atmospheric Sciences faculty member is co-author of an award-winning undergraduate textbook that is reshaping how Earth history is taught.
Earth History: Stories of Our Geological Past, published by Cambridge University Press, has been named the 2026 PROSE Award Category Winner in Earth Science by the Association of American Publishers. The honor recognizes professional and scholarly works that make significant contributions to their fields.
“Producing a textbook can be a yeoman’s task, critical for future students in a discipline, but something that goes unnoticed for the author. The PROSE award not only recognizes all the work that Pete and Janok put into this book, but also that they have written a well-received volume.”
– Julia Wellner, Ph.D., associate dean for faculty affairs
The textbook is co-authored by Peter Copeland, professor of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences at the University of Houston, and Janok P. Bhattacharya, the Susan Cunningham Research Chair in Geology at McMaster University in Ontario, Canada, and adjunct professor at UH. First published in May 2025, the book is available in paperback and hardback editions, as well as an enhanced eBook with online instructional resources.
Designed for undergraduate students, Earth History takes a conceptual, story-driven approach to geology. Instead of presenting an encyclopedic survey of geologic time, the book focuses on pivotal moments in Earth’s past, including the extinction of the dinosaurs and the formation of the Himalaya and the Grand Canyon, to demonstrate how geologists use multiple lines of evidence to reconstruct planetary history. The narrative integrates stratigraphy, paleontology, petrology, geochemistry, and geophysics, making the material accessible to students with little or no prior background in geology.
Each chapter opens with illustrated timelines that situate key events in time, and the book features full-color figures and photographs throughout. Instructor resources, including lecture slides and a test bank, accompany the text, and support classroom use.
Copeland’s research expertise spans thermochronology, geochemistry and continental tectonics, with a focus on the evolution of continental crust and mountain systems such as the Rocky Mountains and the Himalaya. He served as co-editor of the Geological Society of America Bulletin from 2001 to 2004 and has taught and conducted research at UH since 1990.
His commitment to education extends beyond research and into the classroom. In addition to co-authoring Earth History: Stories of Our Geological Past, Copeland is the author of Communicating Rocks: Writing, Speaking, and Thinking About Geology, a widely used guide that emphasizes the essential role of communication in scientific work. The book highlights that scientific discovery does not end with data collection but depends on clear and effective writing and speaking to share findings with broader audiences. It provides practical guidance for Earth science students, including how to write research papers, develop presentations, design posters, complete a thesis, and prepare funding proposals.
Bhattacharya is internationally recognized for his work on sedimentary rocks and sequence stratigraphy, particularly in western North America. Before joining academia, he worked in the petroleum industry and previously served on the faculty at the University of Houston and the University of Texas at Dallas. His honors include the American Association of Petroleum Geologists’ Grover E. Murray Distinguished Educator Award and the 2023 SEPM Francis J. Pettijohn Medal for excellence in sedimentology and stratigraphy.
The PROSE Award places Earth History: Stories of Our Geological Past among the most distinguished scholarly publications of the year and highlights the global impact of University of Houston faculty scholarship in Earth and atmospheric sciences.